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Posts tagged ‘journalism’

In our 24 hour news cycle, it can be hard for journalists and editors to come up with new material. Some outlets even continue to focus on the same old information for hours on end because they can’t come up with something new. As someone who was educated as a journalist, I tend to wonder if there are moments in which the field has lost its ability to differentiate between what is and what is not newsworthy. And for those of you who are not journalists, this might be a beneficial lesson of sorts.

While times change and the norms in a craft adjust, I was taught and still understand newsworthiness to have to fit into one of more of these categories.

Timing

Something going on today will likely be more newsworthy than anything that happened a month, year or decade ago.

Impact

Of course the more something can hold meaning for us, the more valid it is for articles and reports.

Proximity

An article about a new store opening in Des Moines, Iowa isn’t going to be as newsworthy for people in Flagstaff, Arizona as a new store opening in their own area.

Prominence

If an average person gets a speeding ticket, nobody really cares. But, if a high-profile actor does, that might be a different situation.

Human Interest

People like to hear and read about things that might be uplifting and something they can relate to a bit.

Conflict

As a serious photographer….

to be blunt, paparazzi piss me off.

These people who go around shooting anything and everything potentially notable, regardless of the consequences and how it might affect others, really get my goat. And for what, just to earn a few bucks?

As someone who believes in the art of photography, these people drive me nuts.

Here are a few of the countless reasons:

1. Many of them don’t even know good photography. Take a look at the images in the tabloids and such, many aren’t well composed, have exposure issues and are lacking some of the more basic technical elements of the art.

2. They rarely even give any thought to a person’s privacy. This includes the children of celebrities, the most fragile age group among us.

3. A lot of them see themselves as “journalists” in some way. Now I went to school and graduated with a degree in journalism and can assure you that most of them probably don’t have the first clue of what it means to be a journalist.

Maybe someday people will wake up and stop tolerating this crime against the art of photography.

Writing is writing…

is something you might hear when the different styles and genres of this skill are part of a discussion. However, one thing is for sure, such a statement could only be made by a non-writer.

The fact is, there are many different types of writing, virtually all of which have their own distinct characteristics. Of course, it would be very difficult to cover all of these in a single post or even a series of posts. That being the case, I’ll delve into the differences between three genres below to give this bog’s readers an idea of what I’m talking about.

Let’s take these three:

Journalistic writing

Academic writing

SEO-based writing

Perhaps the easiest way to distinguish between them is to do so in a chart:

The bottom line

All types of writing are not created equal and involve a particular set of skills.